A lesson from arborist Joe Mcphail

My buddy, City of Florence arborist Joe Mcphail asked me to drop by this morning.

He knew this day would come, but has been putting it off for years.  In Joe's back yard was the states largest sassafras tree.  (Not by the record book-because it split into two early in it's life).  With a diameter of over 70", let's just say it's a begun.

Either way, now it's history. It was cut down yesterday. It had around 70 good years.  Who know's what form it might take on next.  

Huge Alabama sassafras tree killed from "topping"

Tree "topping" seems to be a common practice, at least around here, with tree services.  A storm comes through and trees are topped.  Someone is nervous about limbs falling on a home and trees are topped.

This beautiful old massive sassafras was topped 18 years ago, when a previous homeowner was present.

And yesterday it had to come down.  Learn from this sassafras tree's deadly mistake.   Topping trees kills trees.

I got some video of Joe sharing more details of the historic tree and the "topping" problem, and will post when I get it uploaded, etc.